Olian? A drink? What is it?

[keelbolt]

The ladies who cook my lunch most days at the Tom Yam stall offered me a drink they called (I think) Olian. Or I suppose it could be the Bangkok R, and the name is Orian. Dark brown stuff with ice, tasted a bit like Coffee. Anyone know what it is and what it's made from?

[rwdrwdrwd]

It is indeed coffee based, with some other stuff

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliang

Edited September 8, 2015 by rwdrwdrwd

[Johpa]

These days oliang is rarely anything other than iced coffee mixed with sweetened condensed milk.

[AyG]

These days oliang is rarely anything other than iced coffee mixed with sweetened condensed milk.

I'm glad you said that because Thai Wikipedia article reads:

โอเลี้ยง หรือ กาแฟดำเย็น ทำจากกาแฟผสมกับน้ำเชื่อมแล้วจึงใส่น้ำแข็งลงไป คำว่า โอเลี้ยง มาจากภาษาจีนแต้จิ๋ว (จีนตัวย่อ: 乌凉; จีนตัวเต็ม: 烏涼; พินอิน: wū liáng) คำว่า โอ หมายถึง ดำ เลี้ยง หมายถึง เย็น รวมแล้วหมายถึง ดำและเย็น

My translation:

Oliang or cool, black coffee is made out of coffee mixed with boiling water, then ice is added. The word "oliang" comes from Teochew Chinese ... The word "o" means "black", "liang" means "cool". Put together they mean "cold and cool".

No reference whatsoever to the other weird and wonderful additions for the English article - though clearly they are used for some forms of oliang.

I suspect that we have traditional oliang, where the coffee is cut with other substances to make it go further (rather like acorn coffee in the UK), but as the price of coffee has fallen there's been less pressure to adulterate it, so the term "oliang" has remained, but it now usually means cold, black coffee.

https://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B9%82%E0%B8%AD%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%A5%E0%B8%B5%E0%B9%89%E0%B8%A2%E0%B8%87

Edited September 9, 2015 by AyG

[Mole]

I'm also baffled by the English wikipedia article claiming Oliang is sometimes mixed with condensed milk. Oliang as according to it's Chinese meaning, "black cold", is supposed to be black coffee, which may be mixed with other things, but it'll have to be black.

If I got served my oliang with condensed milk, I would not be happy.

That's like ordering espresso and they put milk in it for you. Don't think you'd be happy getting served an "espresso" like that.